Star vs The Skeletons (part 2)
Two girls danced crazily together in the corner of the class in the Echo Creek High. Star jumped from desk, to desk, making some otherworldly acrobatics in the air, while Janna was waving her hips energetically, nearly ramming her rear end into the other people around her, and completely not caring about it.
In the middle of one of her somersaults, Star spotted an interesting thing in the distance. She jumped down on the ground and elbowed Janna, not that gently. When the other girl looked at her questioningly, Star pointed towards something with her chin. Janna turned and saw Jackie and Marco dancing together on the middle of the class.
"Ooou!" Janna leaned to Star, so that she could hear despite the loud music. "She is totally hitting on him."
"Right?" Star eyes twinkled excitedly.
This must be a dream. Marco shook his hands and legs to the rhythm of the music in something that one could call a dance. And next to him, Jackie Lynn Thomas was doing exactly the same. The boy's brain had problems comprehending this amount of happiness, when the godsend girl of his dreams was looking into his eyes and smiling widely.
Maybe they will change the music to something slower soon. Marco started intensely dreaming about the calm waltz, or just one of those sad love songs, that forced pairs to keep hands and dance together. Oh, yes. That would be awesome.
He started moving his eyes around, trying to find a D.J. – right now he would do everything from bribery to threats, to have his desired change in tune. But the music console was nowhere to be found and, now that Marco started to think about it, neither were speakers.
When he tried to think more intensely about this, he discovered that insides of his brain resembled a caramel – his thoughts were slow and unfocused, and thinking logically was turning out much harder than it should be.
When that observation hit him, his eyes started to discover other strange details of his surroundings. He was in his class, and not in some club, as he had thought just a half a minute ago. To add to that, strange, pink mist flew between his classmates, filling the air with a strange sweet smell.
But what disturbed Marco the most were the faces of people around him. They were happy, but at the same time something was very wrong with them. One obese boy, whose name Marco couldn't recall now, danced energetically next to him, but it was clear that he was already exhausted. He was sweating very strongly and looked as if he wanted to get off the floor, but something kept him there by force.
By force? Marco thought to himself, his mind still not working very well. Wait. I don't like dancing. I can't dance. What am I doing here?
He tried to find the answer to this question in his mind, and suddenly an image appeared in his head.
Two skeletons dancing through the corridor gracefully…
Marco's mind cleared so violently, that he lost his balance and almost fell on the floor.
"Everything all right?" Jackie shouted next to him, with some concern on her face.
"What?" Marco looked at her, as if he had seen her for the first time today. "Uh, yes. I just… need to do something."
The boy quickly scanned the room with his eyes. Despite the chaos in it, finding Star took him only a couple of seconds. He quickly squeezed through the crowd in her direction.
"Hi, Marco," Janna greeted him loudly, grinning. "Did you get bored of your not-a-crush?"
"Not now, Janna," the boy replied shortly, and grabbed Star's hand. "I will borrow you for a moment, ok?"
Star was surprised, but followed him without a protest.
"Eyy, don't be a party-pooper!" Janna shouted after them, as Marco dragged Star out of the class to the corridor.
The air in it was much cleaner, and the boy took few deep breaths to clean his lungs from the strange mist, before finally asking:
"Star, what is happening here?"
"A paaaartyyy!" She answered enthusiastically, waving her hands and head from side to side in a funky way.
"And how exactly did the class turn into one?" Marco asked, starting to realize, that the girl didn't see anything strange in a surprise dancing during lessons.
"Amm, remember those skeletons from before?" Star asked innocently, poking her cheek with wand. "When I woke them up, they got this par-ty rolling in a seconds!"
"Staaar!" Marco shouted, gesticulating angrily. "They are making people dance…!"
"And what's wrong with that?" The girl interrupted, completely confused by Marco's outrage.
"By hypnotising them." He finished, pointing his hand towards the classroom.
Through the open doors, Star could clearly see a zombie-like dancers, dancing with wide smiles and empty eyes.
"Oh, ooooh." Star patted her chin with fingers. "So that's why the teacher didn't protest."
Marco facepalmed heavily.
"O-kay," Star looked at him, with some determination appearing in her eyes. "So... where are they now?"
"They went in the direction of the canteen," Marco answered, pointing his finger down the corridor.
"If you are right, that they hypnotise people…" Star started.
"Then we must catch them, before the entire school goes crazy." Finished Marco.
What they didn't notice about this entire situation, was a big frog-like monster sitting on the roof of the building across the street. He observed Star Butterfly's strange behaviour for quite a time and had noticed that she seemed distressed.
With a large grin, he opened the portal and jumped into it.
Marco and Star were running through the school, checking every classroom that was on their way and in each finding the same. Nothing. Empty seats, notebooks left in the middle of writing, but not a single student.
Led by Marco, the pair quickly made their way to the doors of the canteen. The pink mist was slowly seeping from behind them, letting the two to believe, that they had arrived to the end of their search.
Marco decided to take a more strategic approach to the matter.
"One the count of three," he whispered to Star, not really checking whether she was listening to him. "One…"
"Hi-ya!" Star kicked the canteen doors open and entered the room. Marco, a little bit dumbfounded, followed her inside.
As soon as they both entered, the doors shut and they found themselves in the absolute darkness. For a second there Marco thought that the room was absolutely silent, but after a moment his ears adjusted, he realized he was wrong. The room was filled with delicate murmuring of people's breaths and small moves. It was a sound of the theatre, just before the show, when the lights had already went off.
"Ladies and Gentlemen!" Star and Marco basically jumped in the air scared, when a loud voice spoke. "Please welcome, your guests, your hosts, the one and the only – THE SKELETONS!"
The pair of teenagers heard a loud pop and canteen suddenly the two rays of light appeared, aiming at the large scene, placed in the middle of the room. A loud round of applause filled the air, making Star overly excited.
I wonder what is going to happen! She thought stretching her legs, trying to get a better view on the scene ahead of them.
Where the heck did that scene come from? Thought Marco.
But neither of them was given much time to contemplate the situation, as right then, the long pillars of smoke shot out of the scene and they heard a mechanism working.
Two skeletons emerged from below the scene, standing on the moving platform that was slowly raising up. As more and more of their skeletal bodies was becoming visible, the pink mist thickened in the room and with the flick of the bony fingers, the magical music started playing again.
Students around Star and Marco started to clap frantically as the platform moved and two skeletons intertwined their hands, posing for a second for their audience.
And then they started dancing and it was nothing like anything Marco had ever witnessed. The pair of skeletons moved as if they didn't even touch the ground, dashing from side of the scene to other in the matter of seconds. When the female skeleton leaned back, almost touching her skull to the ground, and raising her leg to up to the ceiling, all that while being hold in the air by her partner, who was just performing a pirouette, Marco felt his jaw dropping down to the ground.
"Wo-hoo!" Star shouted next to him, waving her hands above her head. "Skeletina has got some moves!"
"Who?" Marco asked, but his brain digested this name fully. "You mean the woman-skeleton?"
"And the other one is Skeletor!" Star nodded energetically. "Named them myself!"
"I figured," Marco said and grabbed her hand. "Let's go."
Easier said than done. Clicking heels of Skeletina weaved more of the pink mist and now all room was dancing, making people rather oblivious to the two teenagers, trying to weave their way through the crowd .
When Marco lost Star's hand for a moment, she immediately got separated from him. It took the boy almost five minutes to find her again, clinging to the bowl with punch, and dragging her away from it.
When they finally got the platform, they quickly climbed at, and soon enough Marco and Star were standing before the two skeletons on the scene.
"Okay!" Marco spoke, with voice as hard as he could muster when looking into the empty eyeholes of the two figures before him. "It's time for you to stop!"
Somehow, this last line sounded much louder, as if the boy had said it to the microphone and suddenly entire room was booing at the newly arrived. Star, looking kind of startled by this reaction, hid behind Marco's back.
"Get out of the scene!" someone in the crowd shouted.
But Marco didn't even flinch at this, rather negative, feedback. His entire mind was focused on the two skeletons before him and at resisting their magical mist, that was particularly thick on the scene.
"Non, non, non, they can stay." Skeletina said amused with her deep, womanly voice.
"Only if they earn it in a proper way." Skeletor added happily.
"Wha?" Star asked, suddenly curious.
"If you want to rule the scene…" Skeletina started.
"…you must defeat king and the queen," Skeletor finished.
"So, if we defeat you, you will stop…" Marco waved his hand around, showing the dancing zombiefied audience. "This?"
"Oui!" Both Skeletons answered in unison.
"Ooou! Fighting!" Star enthusiasm was instantly back, when the situation started to develop in the familiar way.
"But wouldn't you two, by any chance…" Skeletina started with a questioning tone.
"…prefer to solve the conflict with a dance?" Skeletor finished.
"So, like a dancing duel?" Marco asked and waved his hand. "No, no, no, that's ridiculo…"
"We're in!" Star interrupted him. Her shining eyes told Marco that she was completely sold on the idea.
"Oh, boy…" Marco sighed. He looked at the pair of skeletons, whose clothes were being moved by a non-existing wind. "But… who will decide the winner?"
"The audience, of course!" Skeletor shouted. His voice echoed through the room and people around them started to clap enthusiastically.
I have a strange feeling they're gonna be biased. Marco thought critically. With a corner of his eye, he sees Star aiming the wand at him and he was blasted with the ray of bright light.
Next thing he knew, Marco was wearing an elegant suit and Star was next to him in a bright yellow skirt. The Skeletons grabbed their hands and took their starting position, and Star jumped to Marco to do the same.
"I can't dance, Star!" Marco hissed in her ear, when they were standing close to each other with their fingers intertwined.
"Oh," Star only grinned evilly. "That's not gonna be a problem."
Before Marco could ask what did she mean, Star moved her leg up quickly, sending a stream of pink mist in Marco's face.
"What the hell are you… doing?" He started angrily, but then his eyes brightened as he understood her plan. The boy took a deep breath, and inhaled a large dose of a dance-inducing mist. His insecurity disappeared, replaced with energy filling his limbs. "O-kay. I'm ready."
They froze in the position mirroring the skeletons next to them and waited. For a few moments the silence filled the room.
"Commençons!" With one word, Skeletina give a sign and the music started playing, causing dancers to break standstill and throw themselves in the artistic battle.
Back on Mewni, a dark portal opened in the Ludo's castle, letting out the frog-like monster.
He saluted to his master, by kissing his fingers and waving his hands in the air.
"Ludo, master!" He spoke loudly, with satisfaction sounding in his voice. "I observed Star Butterfly, as you commanded."
"Aaaand?" Ludo asked impatiently, licking a corn-flavoured ice cream in his hand.
"She did something with her wand, and she is now partying instead of learning!" Buff Frog reported with a large grin on his face. "And she seemed pretty… distracted."
"Distracted?" Ludo asked with very dumb expression on his beak and tongue froze in the middle of the way to the ice-cream. His eyes brightened and he grinned villainously. "Oh, that is PERFECT!"
Ludo jumped on his chair, accidently dropping his ice-cream at the head of one of his guardians.
"Yeees, no one's at their best when they are… DISTRACTED!" The bird man shouted loudly and squinted his eyes. "Gather the troops! It's time for round two!"